Typical dual spool retractors are well known in the patent art as in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,065,070 to Regis Pilarski and Gerald Yates and 4,164,336 to Wallace Higbee and Robert Rumpf. The retractor spools are spring loaded to apply a return bias constantly seeking to return all loose webbing to the spool. Comfort mechanisms comprising selective means for prevention of rewind are also well known in the retractor art as, for example, the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,002,311, 4,034,931 and 4,149,683 to Robert C. Fisher and Cecil A. Collins. In such devices, the seat belt restraint user can pick a point in the protraction of webbing to prevent the force spring of the rewind spring from acting on the webbing while the webbing is in selected use position. In such devices, withdrawal of webbing from the spool is not impaired so that the occupant can lean forward to adjust his seating position or to reach vehicle controls. However, such devices are known to prevent the rewinding of the belts when otherwise desired; for example, when an active seat belt is unbuckled to permit egress of the seat occupant from the vehicle. Accordingly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,786 issued to Lloyd W. Rogers, Jr. provides a device which is responsive to movement of the door from the closed to the open position to disengage the winding prevention device so that the spring may rewind the webbing upon the reel.
A principle advantage of the present invention is that the rewinding prevention device is disabled without the necessity of providing a mechanical, electrical or hydraulic connection between the door and the webbing retractor.
The present invention combines the dual spool retractor structures with the comfort type structures to disable the rewind in one of the dual spools and provides a control linkage selectively operated by the other spool to disable the comfort type structure at a preselected point so that rewind thereafter proceeds in the first spool. The consequence is a sequence of retraction which is extremely beneficial in dual spool retractor installations. The construction is relatively simple since both spools are on a common frame and a rewind prevention means is secured to one of the spools. Then a release element which is selectively operable is connected to the rewind prevention means for releasing it. An actuator means, operable from the other of the spools which is free to rewind, selectively engages said release and at a predetermined point of retraction in the second mentioned spool the release element is actuated which frees the first mentioned spool by unblocking the rewind prevention means. This is achieved compactly and without complicated mechanism. In pendulum operated systems, the present invention simplifies remote activation of the lock pawl means.
Accordingly, the principal object is to provide a dual spool retractor having a means to prevent rewind in one of the spools until there is a selected amount of rewind achieved in the other of the spools.
Another object is to achieve the principal object in a most facile and unexpected way without greatly increasing the cost and with no impairment of reliability.
Other objects, including extension of the use and acceptance of dual spool retractors by materially extending utility, will be further appreciated as the description proceeds.